Day in the life of
Internal Medicine Resident – Dr. Eva Gamallo RMT, MD
I am a Licensed Medical Doctor, a former Associate Professor teaching Microbiology and Pharmacology to medical students, and currently an Internal Medicine Resident.
My Typical Day
My past and present workday have two faces, the glamour, and the reality.
The glamour (past)
Back when I was teaching in a medical school, my time was my time. My day consisted of meetings with the dean, fellow professors, and students. As a teacher, I was expected to teach medical theories and give my students a glimpse of what is yet to come during their hospital rotations.. This meant facilitating small group discussions about clinical cases and reinforcing their career path regarding what specialty they would pursue and where to take them.
Despite the workload of making lectures, grading exams, and evaluating students as per their participation, I had a flexible schedule that gave me enough time to unwind after a long day. Teaching gave me a different sense of fulfillment as I watched eager eyes and molded the curious minds of young doctors in the early stages of their careers.
The reality (present)
Transitioning from professor to trainee as a medical resident resulted in a drastic shift in my schedule. Time is no longer in my hands, for I have to go on 36-hour duty shifts every three days and have no weekends or holidays off.
A day of a medical resident is like a movie placed on repeat. Waking up at 5:30 am, arriving at the hospital on time, making rounds on the patients, attending conferences, getting grilled by consultants, taking exams unprepared, taking meals, and sleeping on erratic schedules.
As a trainee, 24 hours is barely enough to catch up on sleep and do what is expected of me. However, this is a necessary sacrifice that every doctor should make to become a better physician for one’s patients.
Dealing with patients directly and managing their illness is the heart of being a doctor. The joy felt when you see your patients discharged and well is a priceless gift that makes up for the challenging demands of trainee life.
Pros and cons
The stresses that come with being an internal medicine resident are a whole different pressure level than that of a medical student and intern. Despite being a “trainee,” a resident is now a licensed physician deemed capable of making life-altering medical decisions, where it is your call, your responsibility.
Pros
The sense of fulfillment after a long day, whether teaching your mentees or practicing medicine, is an indescribable and priceless experience.
This profession guarantees you secured financial stability. Being a doctor opens many opportunities, whether through establishing your private practice, working for a company, engaging in the academe, participating in research. There are endless positions out there.
I want to correlate residency training with riding a bicycle but with training wheels on. This is a point in your medical career where you have some semblance of “control over the wheel.” You have the right to decide what is best for your patient under the premise that you do no harm.
But these decisions are supervised by experienced mentors, consultants, and professors to ensure that proper medical treatment is given and avoid unnecessary damage that could harm both the trainee and patients.
Cons
It entails many sacrifices, a lot of missed time with family and friends, and erratic time schedules, especially if you are a practicing physician. Your time is not your time because you are on call 24/7. The moment you sign up for residency, know that there is no such thing as work-life balance, in contrast to being in medical school, where a student is expected to devour textbooks and digest medical concepts. In residency, however, it is expected for one to level up, juggling ward works (tending to patients, answering nurses call, assisting seniors during their rounds), filling out medical paper works (filling up medical chart, history sheets), presenting conferences (case report, research presentations) and acing exams (monthly written evaluations, morning endorsements, quizzes) while being sleep deprived and devoid of a social calendar.
